imagery - L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author

Wordsworth still makes daffodils dance for me

L. Darby Gibbs — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Dancing with the daffodils

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

I’ve read this poem so many times with my students. When I first began to teach, this poem showed up in my ninth graders’ literature book. I skipped it feeling I had evaluated this poem into nothingness in college and did not want to revisit it with ninth graders.

It showed up again when I began teaching college British Lit. Again I passed it over as I made selections for my syllabus. But when we read excerpts from Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals and found references to the walk the two had taken that carried this image, I had to go back and reread the piece. Motion and color, brilliant sparkles and breeze dancing daffodils filled my mind. But that wasn’t new, though it was fresh again for me. It was the last lines that were so suddenly telling. The image of the sea of daffodils had stuck but not the message.

Startling events, snippets of conversation, fragrances, and images come to us in those quiet moments of repose. They come alive again, thrill and move us. Writers live on these enveloping sensory memories. We can aspire to recreate them, be a Wordsworth (D or W), and leave an impression on our readers that will find a place in their quiet moments.

#writing
#Wordsworth
#imagery

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Learning from the masters series: Seamus Heaney crafts imagery

L. Darby Gibbs — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Amber: imbedding strong images

You know those images that stick with you long after the work has been shelved or sunk beneath a mountain of new impressions? The ones you can read over and over and feel the gritty texture, smell the burning tang, see the vivid stain…that quality of capturing a moment precisely, the vision exacting?

I have read “Graubelle Man” numerous times. I have heard Seamus Heaney perform his work, though I cannot say if I have listened to him recite this one. But each time I read this poem, a voice accompanies it. It is a resonant utterance, that shapes each word in melodic presses of the tongue against teeth, palate, and lips. The man described is evoked into dimensions that show him half imbedded in soggy peat, various degrees of dark pigmentation on his rippled, sunken skin crumpled against the bone. The reader knows he would feel stiff and cold if touched.

Graubelle Man

As if he had been poured
in tar, he lies
on a pillow of turf
and seems to weep

the black river of himself.
The grain of his wrists
is like bog oak,
the ball of his heel

like a basalt egg.

He builds an image so deeply that it slides under the skin and settles in for a lifetime. I cannot dig this image out of my horde of gathered bits of fine poesy. There is much more to this poem, more images that bring the Gaubelle man described into the view of every reader that examines the piece.
I cannot imagine that one could teach a person to write at this level. I can only imagine that it must be sought out, read repeatedly, savored in the hope that in seeping in it will imbue one’s images with moments which may find a reader to settle into for a lifetime. Read, seek these images out, glory in them as reader or writer, make space under your skin for them.

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Tuesday prompt: #8 2013

L. Darby Gibbs — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Pick out a room in your house or apartment that you would love to remodel. Imagine the changes you would make. What different furniture would you prefer, paint scheme, layout, window type? Think about every detail: baseboard, electrical switches, trim around the doors, what is in the vase of flowers, scent.

capture the details

When you have the vision clear in your mind, start writing it down. Be as clear as you can with what the room looks like now and then blast away at it, always maintaining a steady sense of the place. If necessary, keep your vantage point from one place in the room, i.e., the entrance from the front hall or a corner where most of the room is viewable, even a glimpse of other rooms to add contrast. Most importantly, don’t let your reader get lost in the room.

This could take a bit of time and writing. When you have it all, go back through and remove everything that is unnecessary to maintaining the overall look. Keep trimming until you have it down to a page of overall change, with enough close detail to set the effect of the room as down to the tiniest point, and enough general description that the room is not centered on details. Sort of like matching your earrings or cufflinks to the dress or suit you are wearing. No piece sets the tone alone, it all works together.

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